RUNNER LEAVES EATING DISORDERS BEHIND HER

Woman training for half-marathon as part of Tri-City Medical Center’s ‘Lucky 13’

In three months, Charlotte Dwyer is determined to run her first half-marathon.

Crossing the finish line will be a major milestone in the La Costa native’s road to recovery from the eating disorders that plagued her adolescence.

Dwyer is one of the “Lucky 13,” a group of North County adults who have overcome significant health crises to train for the Tri-City Medical Center Carlsbad Half Marathon on Jan. 19. This year’s Lucky 13 — chosen in a hospital-sponsored contest to receive six months of free pre-race training — includes men and women recovering from strokes, back and neck injuries, heart problems, fibromyalgia and diabetes.

At 22, Dwyer is the youngest member of the group (the oldest is 73), and her health issues are less easy to spot as the team members work out together on weeknights at Tri-City Wellness Center and during Saturday morning training runs. But her six-year battle with bulimia and anorexia nervosa has left deep emotional scars that are just now beginning to heal.

Lucky 13 coach Paul Carey said he has been amazed at how Dwyer has blossomed in the program.

“I’ve seen a huge change in her confidence from the very first week. Her spirit has grown immensely and she’s enjoying life quite a bit right now,” he said.

Dwyer said she is inspired by the other members of Lucky 13 (actually, this year Tri-City picked 14 winners for the fourth annual contest).

“We all share our struggles and our strengths,” Dwyer said. “We’re all trying to get better and I’m pretty proud of us all.”

Dwyer said she was 14 when some friends at a summer fitness camp taught her their technique for staying thin — forcing themselves to throw up by putting their fingers down their throat. Eager to fit in, she purged all of her meals for the next two weeks and was thrilled when she lost some weight.

“It started out because of body issues, but it became a comfort thing where it was very soothing,” she said. “I had a high level of anxiety and found that whenever everything in my life was out of control, throwing up was something I could control. Afterward I would feel calm and clearheaded. I could empty out my thoughts in the toilet bowl.”

At 15, she began alternating bulimia with periods of anorexia, where she starved herself on just a few hundred calories a day.

“The worst period for me was when I lived on a single king-size Snickers bar and water for three weeks,” she said.

To get through the days, Dwyer said she would sleep in until 11 a.m., then try to keep from eating until 2 or 3 p.m. because she knew the moment she swallowed a bite of food, the cycle of “cleansing” would begin. She said she would vomit 10 to 12 times a day, on average.

“When you’re doing this for so long, you forget how to eat,” she said. “It becomes an obsession where it takes over your whole life. All I ever thought about was food — what time I would eat, what I would eat, how much I would eat. And when I did eat, all I could think about was that it would have to come out.”